Six years ago I was fortunate enough to be sailing around the South China Sea as part of a marine archaeological expedition in search of Manila galleons, the largest treasure ships ever to sail the oceans.

Several like-minded dealers and I were funding a search of a specific vessel that sunk in 1572 carrying 3,000,000 silver “pieces of eight” and nearly 50,000, gold Doubloons.

The significance? Possibly as much as $1 Billion, conservatively $500,000,000.

Sadly, we never found the mother lode, but the experience was priceless and worth every cent of the $250,000 it has cost me to date. ( The crew are still out there as I pen this missive) From this sum, more than $100,000 was spent on research- The Clues, The Clues.

The odds of actually locating the mother lode are far greater than locating the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, my opinion was and still is, that unless you look you will never find anything. It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved.

In the words of the legendary treasure hunter Mel Fisher: “Today is the Day”.

The reason that I share this with you is that today is today, tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow is a blank page that we all get to write afresh. Nobody can accurately predict what events will greet us when we awake.

On October 28th 1929 who could have thought that the next day, would forever be known as Black Tuesday and spawn a new economic expression: Depression

On Sunday October 17, 1987, who could have predicted stock markets would fall 22% before breakfast?

Returning to my adventures six years ago, a major storm blew into the South China Sea calling a premature end to our search. For the first time in 3 months, I was able to check into a hotel. I had a real bed, air conditioning and cable television: 200 channels with nothing on.

As I lay there surfing the channels I came across a French network and saw what I thought was a very strange film. It showed one of the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York on fire.

I quickly switched to CNN just in time to see a second plane strike the towers.

Who could have known?

Well, as we now know, quite a few people. The clues were there.

Tom Clancy the author had written a book, a FBI field agent had made a report, the department of defence had been practising an emergency scramble of fighters, and the CIA, well as we know from Iraq, they know nothing. According to conspiracy theorists the president and vice president were also in the loop.

Obviously, the exact date and time were elusive, but the clues pointed to a spectacular event, which simple precautions could have prevented. September 11th will forever be known as the day when the lives of every single man woman and child on this planet changed.

This is why it reminds me of today, Thursday July 26th 2007. The entire world agrees that we are experiencing the greatest period of prosperity ever. Stock markets, the most common measure of prosperity continue to rise, property prices are offensive, and unemployment is pretty much the lowest it has ever been.

We are convinced that the summer of 2007 will go down as the beginning of the end. And here is why:

“The Greatest Economic Boom Ever: Enjoy It While It Lasts” So says US treasury secretary and former Goldman Sachs banker Hank Paulson: For the full article, as published in Fortune magazine click here Click Here

$100 BILLION SUB PRIME LOSSES:Federal Reserve Chairman, and Ex Goldman Sachs Banker Ben Bernanke: Click Here

Not sure what all the fuss is about? Don’t be embarrassed, neither did I until I read this: Click Here

If history is our guide the recent turbulence in stock markets, treasury bonds, housing and credit markets is just a blip. Possibly a healthy, short-term correction.

However, if this is the case, it means that THE BIG ONE has yet to come.

Considering we have had a period of prosperity unprecedented in history, could the following crash also be unprecedented?

All the staff at Signature Rarities work under my direct supervision. It is not there job to tell you what the risk is to your financial future. That is up to you to calculate using your own personal benchmarks.

Our work at Signature Rarities is not to convince you to put all your money into “old coins.” Our job is to locate for you what represents a tangible asset of last resort. A safety net for you and you family.

Until January 2007, executives of Northern Rock were paid performance bonuses based upon a simple formula:

For every 1% rise in profits, they would receive 5% of salary as a bonus, up to a maximum of 100% of salary. For this reason, every opportunity was used to it full extreme to create profits. As is sometimes in the world of high fiancé this was not enough.

To further ensure “performance” in January 2007 executives voted them selves a bonus increase. from 5 to 10% of salary for every one 1% of profit- up to a maximum of 200% of salary. Great work if you can find it. But exactly what do bankers do that they deserve to earn so much more than the average person? And is their work important enough to warrant such extravagance?

THE OLD LADY OF THREADNEEDLE STREET.

It is widely accepted that banking as we think of it today, began during the fourteenth century in Medici’s Florence. In Britain, the first bank was Coutts and Co founded in 1690, followed by world’s first “central bank”, under charter from King William III in 1694.

The events leading to the founding of the Bank of England occurred some 50 years earlier under King Charles I.

In 1640, King Charles faced raising and paying an army to invade and pacify Scotland.

He swiftly prepared to fund his campaign by seizing the gold held in the Tower of London. As events unfolded, the proposed war against Scotland petered out and eventually the gold returned.

Two years later, in 1642 the Great Civil War did break out between King and Parliament. Nervous citizens, fearing another seizure- from either side- removed their gold and sought another secure depository.

GOLD SMITHS- THE FIRST BANKERS

A natural option was an arrangement with London’s gold smiths, who had their own, private methods of storage. The gold smiths issued receipts to depositors, which rapidly became a freely circulating currency.

Very soon, the gold smith’s noticed that very few, if any, people returned to take possession of there gold, so the next step was taken. This was to issue additional notes to borrowers, in return for an interest charge.

This practice of producing twice the amount of money than deposits held became enshrined as standard banking with the founding of the Bank of England 52 years later

THE BANK OF ENGLAND

In 1694, King William the Third was facing a war against the French. Before he could seize the gold, a cabal of six London gold smiths offered the king a loan.

In return, the goldsmiths received royal charter to establish the first “Joint Stock Company” called the Bank of England. The world’s first central bank: Privately owned, responsible only to the stockholders, known as the Court of Directors.

In addition to the Million-pound loan to the king, the company was allowed to issue the public the same amount in paper- with an interest charge.

during the 300 years since, this original 2 million pounds has grown to a figure beyond comprehension.

In August 2007 total private debt in the UK broke 100% of GDP reaching an incredible 1.35 Trillion pounds, surpassing GDP at only £1.33 Trillion. Adding public and corporate debt, this figure surpasses £2 Trillion of public and private.

Approximately half total US Debt of $9 trillion, but America has 5 times the population and an economy that is almost 7 times the size.

THE NORTHERN WRECK Northern rock is one of dozens, perhaps hundreds, maybe even thousands of banks that took this simple deception of creating money from nothing to unimaginable levels.

Total deposits made by customers of Northern Rock are about £25 Billion Pounds. Their loan book is in the region of £105 Billion. More than four times deposits.

The question now is what will be the new business model?